• Jerez Test Day Two

Renault not distracted by headline times

Vitaly Petrov is still getting used to the new Renault R31 © Getty Images

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• Drivers:
• Vitaly Petrov

• Teams:
• Renault

Renault is not worried about its testing pace over the last two days in Jerez and has confirmed Nick Heidfeld will test on Saturday with Bruno Senna driving the R31 on Sunday.

Vitaly Petrov was at the wheel of the car on Thursday and Friday but did not feature at the sharp end of the timesheets on either outing. The team is still reeling from the loss of Robert Kubica after the Pole's rallying accident last weekend, and to add to its problems it had a couple of technical issues with the R31 on Friday. However, Petrov said he was still learning about the new car and that, most importantly, Renault was making progress.

"We were not worried about the lap times and instead we focussed on the tyres to try and understand how they work," he said. "We also did some aero mapping in the morning and then spent a lot of time working on the brakes and the KERS. Unfortunately we lost some time with a water leak, which meant we could not do the race distance in the afternoon as we planned. After three days in the R31, I'm only just starting to feel really comfortable with the car and it was in the last two hours of the session that we found some good things with the set-up."

Team boss Eric Boullier agreed that Renault is chipping away at improving the car's performance and confirmed that Heidfeld would be evaluated as a replacement for Kubica on Saturday.

"Our second day in Jerez was not the easiest because we suffered with some minor technical problems. However, we still managed reasonable mileage and we have ticked off some more items on the job list. In particular, the work we did on the brakes and the KERS has been very beneficial and we are learning how to get the most from the system. For tomorrow, Nick [Heidfeld] will get his opportunity in the car and this will give us the chance for a detailed evaluation before we make any decisions."

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